This week On Your Lead, we're diving into an extraordinary conversation about the journey from chaos to contentment, and the surprising ways honey bees impact us all.
Meet Our Guest:
Steve Jimenez - Founder of Hives for Heroes, a nonprofit that uses beekeeping to support veterans. Steve opens up about the therapeutic benefits of beekeeping and how caring for these little pollinators can actually teach us big life lessons.
And Your Host:
Thad David - A former Recon Scout Sniper with First Recon and one of the real-life warriors highlighted in the acclaimed mini-series, Generation Kill. Thad brings a unique perspective on how to lead in volatile situations and adapt to the challenges life throws at you.
What We'll Discuss:
Thad’s experience and how he transitioned from the chaos of combat to a life of contentment. The incredible work Hives for Heroes is doing to promote wellness and purpose. The fascinating world of honey bees and how they affect our daily lives, from the food we eat to the air we breathe.
Mark your calendars, set a reminder, and don't forget to tune in! You'll walk away with a newfound appreciation for the intricacies of life, from the battlefield to the beehive.
Click the link in our bio to listen or find us on [your podcast platform]!
#Podcast #Leadership #Veterans #HivesForHeroes #HoneyBees #ThadDavid #GenerationKill #Wellness #Purpose #Transition #LifeLessons
Ready for some nectar for your soul? We can't wait for you to join the conversation.
Summary Below
Picture this: you're a post-9/11 Marine veteran, grappling with depression and addiction, and stuck in a corporate rut. Sounds bleak, doesn't it? Well, what if I told you that our guest for this episode, Steve Jimenez, has not only walked this path but has managed to turn his life around in a most unexpected way?
Turn up the volume as Steve lets you in on his transformative journey from the Marines to beekeeping with Hives for Heroes, and how this unusual shift gave him a renewed sense of purpose. This isn't just a tale of personal triumph against the odds. It’s also a dive into the fascinating science behind beekeeping and its therapeutic benefits, especially for PTSD sufferers. Imagine finding salvation amid the hum of bees and the nurturing of hives. It's real, and it's happening across 50 states, thanks to Hives for Heroes.
But we're not stopping there. This episode is about more than the art of beekeeping; it's about life lessons gleaned from these industrious insects and the power of mentorship. You'll hear about the transformative effect of peer-to-peer learning, how managing bees can help regulate emotions and even aid those transitioning from incarceration. And as we wrap up, consider heeding Steve's call to action. Join the hive, lend a hand to veterans and our planet. Steve's story is not just a testament to the healing power of bees, but also a rallying cry to contribute towards a purpose bigger than ourselves. Tune in now for a conversation that's as intriguing as it is inspiring!
Contact Thad - VictoriousVeteranProject@Gmail.com
Thanks for listening!
This week On Your Lead, we're diving into an extraordinary conversation about the journey from chaos to contentment, and the surprising ways honey bees impact us all.
Meet Our Guest:
Steve Jimenez - Founder of Hives for Heroes, a nonprofit that uses beekeeping to support veterans. Steve opens up about the therapeutic benefits of beekeeping and how caring for these little pollinators can actually teach us big life lessons.
And Your Host:
Thad David - A former Recon Scout Sniper with First Recon and one of the real-life warriors highlighted in the acclaimed mini-series, Generation Kill. Thad brings a unique perspective on how to lead in volatile situations and adapt to the challenges life throws at you.
What We'll Discuss:
Thad’s experience and how he transitioned from the chaos of combat to a life of contentment. The incredible work Hives for Heroes is doing to promote wellness and purpose. The fascinating world of honey bees and how they affect our daily lives, from the food we eat to the air we breathe.
Mark your calendars, set a reminder, and don't forget to tune in! You'll walk away with a newfound appreciation for the intricacies of life, from the battlefield to the beehive.
Click the link in our bio to listen or find us on [your podcast platform]!
#Podcast #Leadership #Veterans #HivesForHeroes #HoneyBees #ThadDavid #GenerationKill #Wellness #Purpose #Transition #LifeLessons
Ready for some nectar for your soul? We can't wait for you to join the conversation.
Summary Below
Picture this: you're a post-9/11 Marine veteran, grappling with depression and addiction, and stuck in a corporate rut. Sounds bleak, doesn't it? Well, what if I told you that our guest for this episode, Steve Jimenez, has not only walked this path but has managed to turn his life around in a most unexpected way?
Turn up the volume as Steve lets you in on his transformative journey from the Marines to beekeeping with Hives for Heroes, and how this unusual shift gave him a renewed sense of purpose. This isn't just a tale of personal triumph against the odds. It’s also a dive into the fascinating science behind beekeeping and its therapeutic benefits, especially for PTSD sufferers. Imagine finding salvation amid the hum of bees and the nurturing of hives. It's real, and it's happening across 50 states, thanks to Hives for Heroes.
But we're not stopping there. This episode is about more than the art of beekeeping; it's about life lessons gleaned from these industrious insects and the power of mentorship. You'll hear about the transformative effect of peer-to-peer learning, how managing bees can help regulate emotions and even aid those transitioning from incarceration. And as we wrap up, consider heeding Steve's call to action. Join the hive, lend a hand to veterans and our planet. Steve's story is not just a testament to the healing power of bees, but also a rallying cry to contribute towards a purpose bigger than ourselves. Tune in now for a conversation that's as intriguing as it is inspiring!
Contact Thad - VictoriousVeteranProject@Gmail.com
Thanks for listening!
Welcome to another episode. I'm here today with Steve Jimenez from Hives for Heroes. How are you doing, steve Doing?
Speaker 2:wonderful Thanks for having us that really appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm so excited. I first heard about you guys from I was I was facilitating a training and somebody told me about all the great work that you were doing with Hives for Heroes and Immediately just became super interested with everything you're doing. I'm excited to hear about it, what got you into it and just everything along the way minutes. It's just amazing stuff that you have going on, so I'm excited to share it out.
Speaker 2:Thank you. There's so many people around the country doing this. It's it's pretty humbling to know how many people are putting efforts in. It is to serve, you know, our community of veterans. First responders.
Speaker 1:That's absolutely amazing and it's great work that you're doing and I'm just pumped to to share it out there and just really quick too. I know you're a fellow Marine If you could, just just so everybody can hear about kind of what what got you started? When did you join the Marine Corps? What'd you do in the Marines? What got you to join? That's a little bit of the backstory little bit of background.
Speaker 2:So I joined the years of six, graduated there of six and went in oh yeah, fat. So was on 15th view from Basically all of 2010. Got out into Lebanon and they went reserves with four through time which we had those conversations about all the fun stuff there.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I got in. Really, 9-11 was a huge turning point for me and and that was a part of my life or a lot of my friends Ended up going to the record from my high school and my parents did not allow me to go in and list there like you are not going to list. So I'm one of those that went to a name, graduated from a name Through the Corcadets, which is a wonderful experience, and then with the OCC route, so ten weeks there and then, of course, tbs and everything else that goes along with it, and then that was a combo, so comm school, tom school is another six months. Okay, so it took a lot to get to the fleet, but when I did I really enjoyed it and I'm grateful that the me was where I was able to go, because we were in a lot of countries doing a lot of things very kinetic but also extremely helpful throughout the, throughout the globe, right as as yeah and Got to experience all the magtaf as we talk about.
Speaker 2:Marines know that, but a lot of people don't bring their ground task force and how it really integrates throughout the, throughout the world and and yeah, got out and Went back in. I missed it too much and I had to go back in six months later into the results, oh so you got out and then got back in yeah, I missed it too much.
Speaker 2:I love more Marines man I. Every time we go and do something, we're together and that was an amazing experience for me to be with like-minded, you know type a very motivated, purpose and mission driven people and we could do that together and make a difference in the world. And and we're doing it again here. It's just a different platform. You know, now we're working with honey bees throughout the United States and we have a lot of mission driven, purpose driven people that are Taking a lot of time to serve others and it's very, very much a Similar experience, except for nobody's getting shot at.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's always always makes it much better, a much better way to show up to work every day. And, man, I love how you made that connection to that the. I talked to somebody recently named Evan and just another, actually former Marine that runs his own company and and it was really cool to watch him unpack and discover that what he missed about the Marine Corps was the service side of it and just be able to serve others and it was just adjusting his thinking to how he's serving people in this community, serving people by hiring veterans, and it was. It was really cool to see that shift, that the service doesn't have to stop just because you got out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100% agree with that. We go, we talk about our core values all the time as an organization, you know, because our mission is connecting veterans and first responders to be keeping throughout the United States and we provide access, resources and funding for those individuals that are interested, and we do that in a multitude of ways, through scholarships and kind of grants and education Through the major institutions and universities throughout the United States.
Speaker 2:But connecting that to our core values is connection right, connecting back to ourselves, because sometimes we forget that. Connecting to nature and connecting back to each other, building healthy relationships, healthy, accountable relationships and finding purpose bigger than yourself and then serving others well. So connection, purpose, relationships and service. We call it our CPRs.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful. I love that. That's it. That's incredible. And you pass that along to anybody that that takes a hive. I know we're kind of stepping into what you're currently doing, but is that, is that stuff that you pass along? Anybody that takes on a hive is Living by those principles as well.
Speaker 2:That's correct, yep, we do everything through those, those core values again, providing access, resources and funding for those individuals and some of their families that are willing and wanting to go do things like this, and then we do all that legally, morally and ethically correct. So those, those are our tenants, those are our foundations throughout the. The Organization which translates throughout the United States is where about 3700 right now through all 50 states. Wow.
Speaker 1:And and before we even unpack, because I'm so excited to hear about all the different, just amazing things that this does for veterans in General, and I'm curious to know what got you into it, because you know it's rare to talk to somebody that that does Anything with bees. I had this guy, this uncle Joe, and I think he was like a third or fourth uncle removed, you know, from down south Mississippi, and so we had to drive up a ways and and he actually took your bees and I mean I might have seen him three times when I was a kid, but I always remember showing up and just, yeah, it was a really unique, interesting thing. But for my entire life that's the only person I've ever known that's done anything with bees. So I'm very curious to know like, what sparked this? Was it your transition out? How was your transition out of the military? Like what, what sparked this with bees?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the transition was pretty rough as I got out in 1314 Pretty, pretty devastating. I was able to do very well in in corporate America for a good amount of time. Then it just didn't really work for me. So I ended up starting my own company and doing doing a well in consulting. I think we talked a little bit about lean and six sigma is my background. So yeah, it's whole thing efficiency and effectiveness, etc. I'm working with people well. So that was my background.
Speaker 2:After getting out of the brains, working for Fortune 50 companies and and really enjoying that part. But I was kind of dying inside and I didn't realize that I was putting all my energy in towards my, my corporate career and really kind of ignoring my, my family and myself. And so that transition through heavy drinking right, a lot of people have stories with addiction and things of that nature. I'm one of them. Heavy, heavy alcohol use, not very kind to myself, not very kind to a lot of people around me, and I ended up starting my own company knowing that we could perform well and I thought that was gonna be the next avenue. And then we were pretty successful and I got depressed again. So there was this, this overarching not having enough Of me right, not not see myself, but always, always serving others, but in an unhealthy way, serving it in a, in a way that was driving a force to be better Instead of being just good. And so now, as that has shifted, I spent about three years extremely depressed, did not have a great experience with our, our system. That we probably all understand. On the VA side, I personally did not have a great experience and I had to go out to the outside sectors with nonprofits and things of that nature in order to support me coming back and and that really was an inspiration to me in, in a sense, of serving others. So I volunteered a lot with other organizations, really so I could get outside of myself.
Speaker 2:And then I had a friend invite me to a beekeeping experience, which, if you ever you know, seen it, you know marine, with PTS coming back and like getting into a hive, not knowing what's going on. It doesn't really make a lot of sense, to be honest. Yeah, you know we joke around. There's like literally thousands of ladies trying to kill you every second, right, if you're not doing things correct. So why would you ever do that?
Speaker 2:But something happened when we opened up that hive. You know, I had the camaraderie with my friends there that we were trusting we use the adage trust yourself, your gear and your buddies, just like we did, you know, in the military and, and so I enjoyed the experience. These these bees came out and it made it into a cathartic experience. So, instead of that anxiety that I had previously, it actually calmed me down tremendously and I was able to focus, for one of the few times that I can remember, on something. I was focusing on taking care of them, being a good steward to the bees and working with my friends that were there. It just shifted my perspective of life and I truly believe these bees saved my life and now we get to continue to steward.
Speaker 2:Those and others have similar experiences that they've shared through our conversations, and it's it's a privilege to be able to speak about that on a continuous level for organization. But, trust me, there are literally thousands of people, you know, just like me, whether they were first responders or veterans, that have very, very similar stories that shifted their life. So maybe some listeners might feel the same way and take that leap into the fear. Overcome that fear with with our buddies doing it again, all over again, serving a bigger cost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm. I love this story and it really summarized it really really well. And oftentimes I want to circle back to One of the first things that you said about that that transition out, just because I find that I Think that a lot of veterans get out and they they might be struggling, but they don't realize how bad they're struggling yet and it's kind of like it's tough to know what to do when you don't realize exactly what's what's going on, or that there is something that happened and so it sound like you got out and you were. You said you were working for a fortune 50 company. Yes, I mean just to eventually you're doing.
Speaker 1:Well so, yeah, extremely well, I mean life. Yeah, from the outside, looking in, anybody that would look at this would say, well, he's locked and loaded, he's ready to go.
Speaker 2:perfect life, you know three kids, married, career, you know house, blah, blah, blah everything.
Speaker 1:Americans, what else could, what else could you want right?
Speaker 2:and then there was struggle inside of it, inside and Never were able to deal With those things because I was always focusing on quote-unquote success, right so success in business, having that outside perspective, having other people go oh you know what.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool, and Whether this struggle was external or not, I think we all deal with struggles that are, um right, there's trauma associated all throughout our lives and we deal with those in different ways. My personal way was to throw myself into work I'm sure there's people on here that have experienced that right through myself into work. That was gonna make me happy and then, when I wasn't happy, in order to disconnect from that, I was drinking. So now I have this kind of excellent work life with a drinking balance and almost like hiding those things from each other and really, at the end of the day, I wasn't being honest with myself and Going through the experiences that we have. I attributed to not just the bees, but the bees doing the work that we don't see.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of. There's a lot of science out there now that shares how it is actually a Very advantageous for you to work with bees. It in order to cope with PTSD. So that's that's a huge thing that universities are coming out with studies. You're coming out. You see two things on Instagram and other social media networks that are bringing these facts out and it goes. Now it's like, oh wow, I didn't know that factually or scientifically. I just felt that for me and again, I know other people have as well, and I love sharing stories of others that have given us permission, because there are so many amazing Veterans and first responders in this organization that have gone from you know whether it's addiction or jail or all sorts of stuff and now they've started their own companies. They're serving their community in amazing ways and we're just their backstop. We're not telling them what to do. We're saying here we are as a resource for support. We're here to serve you and in that you're serving yourself, you're serving your family and you're serving your community in such amazing ways.
Speaker 1:That's so incredible, what an amazing, amazing story. And hearing like what you said there, it sounded like because what a great place to hide. I think that a lot of people hide in that I'm working really hard, looking how successful I am, and we can let, because nobody Nobody's got to run in and say, wow, you're working so hard, shame on you. Yeah, and it's a wonderful hiding space because you, you're validated from everybody around you, even though the world might be falling apart inside, everybody backs you up and validates what you're doing, and so it sounds like you were defining success in a very different way.
Speaker 2:That's right, you know oh, very much, yeah, very much. So my, our success is now driven through the success of others and how well they they can, they can come through. I mean, if you hear the stories that are I mean you can look on our Instagram there's a lot of testimonials on there and things of that nature but when you really sit and eat a knee with somebody around a beehive and you're learning something completely different, the conversations are incredible. I mean, people open up that you.
Speaker 2:It's like having that can't fire, right, it's just a little bit more dangerous, right, that the fireside chat that we like go into our retreats and things of that nature and just the real healing is done around the campfire, right? Yeah this is a real healing is done around the knife.
Speaker 1:All right. So anybody that might be in that position, I would say that was a great Transition over, because if you're defining success for self like what, what kind of nice things do I have? Do I get the validation for mothers, it might be good to look at transitioning to success for others. And what are we doing to help support other people? And getting into the beehive when you were talking about it earlier and how I'm just meditative, almost that it could Absolutely it made me think of like an EOD bomb squad going in. That was the visual that you gave me when you were talking about earlier, like going into it and then it's. I don't know if that's accurate at all. I've never done this, I'm not a good guy, but guess what?
Speaker 2:One of our the guy that does everything for our merchandise and all our engraving EOD Marine. So we get to hear some stories. He's an amazing guy. Kevin's incredible serves in a great capacity for us because we don't have to worry about things. But I can see that on the EOD side right Like nothing else matters right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm taking care of everything around here, but I have to focus on this in order to take care of that. I can see that. That's a really cool analogy.
Speaker 1:Well, and just, I mean, it was the visual that you gave me, that's just where my mind went, and it's almost like a bomb squad going in because you can't. You can't focus on anything else. So we're bad. Things are going to happen to yourself and other people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, something that's truly like fascinated me was if I'm agitated, they feel it Right. It's not like. I'm going to get in like kicking or moving a whole bunch of stuff, but these adages that we utilize, right, slow, smooth, smooth as fast, that's what we do in OIC, and if you're not, if you're not, like, focused on them, it's almost like they know it.
Speaker 2:But if you're agitated for some reason, they will become agitated. It's like they feel the energy that you're working through and it's really cool because it forces you to be calm. It's not a therapy session but wow, at the end of it you kind of feel like it. And so there's a lot of people we have we have your stories all the time that people just literally like going out sip and coffee. They have a hive in their backyard, like one hive, two hives, whatever. They don't have to be commercial beekeepers by any means, but those one or two hives they'll just sit in their backyards drinking coffee and it calms them. That's their therapy. It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1:So what is it? And I'm going to ask you because I don't know. It sounds like there's an aspect of it where we're going in and we're taking care of this hive, which I would love to hear unpack what that process looks like. But then also it seems like there's another aspect of it just sitting on your back porch drinking a cup of coffee, which that sounds pretty incredible. Just doing that, what does it look like, jumping in and going in and taking care of a hive? You mentioned trusting yourself, trusting your gear, trusting everybody around you. What does it look like to go in and take care of a hive? What's?
Speaker 2:it. Yeah, we still love that adage so much. Trust yourself, you're giving your buddies. Walking into an unknown situation, follow a process, a known process, find success and build confidence. So that's kind of this circular piece. Trust yourself, you're giving your buddies. Go into an unknown, follow a process, find success, build confidence. And you just repeat this and repeat this and repeat this over and over again.
Speaker 2:And it has become one of those things where now, because these processes are, they're not standardized by any means, if I'm going to inspect the hive, you're going to inspect the hive probably differently at one level or another, but we have an understanding of each other right. There's the safety factor. There's looking out for each other. There is, you know, jumping out of a bird, for example. Everybody's looking at their gear right, gear checks, body checks, all that stuff happens prior to going into the hive. And you're watching each other's backs the entire time. So that I got your sixth stuff is right there, present, right, and then you're building that confidence afterwards. And you did it together. So there's your shared hardship. I mean we can put these metaphors of everything that we've done in the military almost right next to each other and have that same, have a better transition story. And when we started this, it was actually only a handful of people here at Houston Texas and we started by doing rescues and removals. And we did that because we had no idea what we were doing, because if you're a beekeeper and you're listening, you already know that's like the worst thing that you can do. But, of course, leave it to a bunch of Marines and Army guys to go out and do the worst thing you could possibly do, just to disconnect and go do something for somebody else, right, like yes, let's not have any clue. This is our first year of beekeeping, right, and we're like cutting out walls and like taking these bees and trying to, you know, put them into a safe environment, not being successful a lot of the times.
Speaker 2:And the reason why our peer-to-peer mentorship platform is so important is because you can have all the education you want. I mean, think about sitting in a course on you mentioned EOD or shooting right, like you sit in the course for your PowerPoint presentation. Does that mean you can shoot? No, it means you know, like the pieces of a weapon right With, like actually getting out there totally different ballgame. So our peer-to-peer is based on we love the education side. There are universities, there are programs and organizations that are out there, that are there to serve. On the education side, we're more on the people side and we do that by, again, needy person to person. But man, isn't it a different experience when you have a PMI instructing you in the front? It's very different than it is having a PMI right next to you showing you how to shoot right. Remember those PMIs where you're like how do you know what I'm doing wrong? Just by where it's hitting on the paper right, like that's crazy. Well, it's because they've been there and they've done that.
Speaker 2:But now they can instruct you in a way that is so easy for you to understand. It's like oh, trigger, squeeze, you know, breath, whatever that is You're like. Okay, so now we got it. Well, we do the same thing here. It's, you know, left to right mentorship. We're connecting people with somebody in their local area as best as we possibly can. Of course, it's a large geographic area and we try to put people within 30 miles of each other and so far that has been a very, very large success. One of the other statistics that is important to understand is 80% of first year beekeepers quit. 70% of the 20% that go into their second year quit Not a very high success rate for bees?
Speaker 1:No, why did they quit?
Speaker 2:Because it's hard. They're trying to do it alone.
Speaker 1:I don't know what I do.
Speaker 2:And I go into a bunch of bees and I spend all this money and then they either die or they fly off or they abscond. I'm out and I don't know what I did wrong. So we actually we encourage our beekeepers not to get bees their first year. Get with a mentor. Hook up with us on Fagirlscom. Get with a mentor, go into their yard, learn a lot in a very, very short period of time, and then in the second year they end up. Those mentors end up gifting you a hive so that you are now rewarded for your efforts in their yard. So there's a reward component there as well.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful. Well, what a great thing to do too. I mean, it's almost like what it makes me think of I was just talking to somebody yesterday that people don't really value. We don't assign a lot of value to free things. But we assign a ton of value to things that we have to work for.
Speaker 2:That's right, that's a product we're spot on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it's just. I mean, you guys already figured it out and you have that rolling, so that's absolutely incredible. So you find somebody within 30 miles that is doing it.
Speaker 2:That is our goal. You get them paired up.
Speaker 1:So then you go and learn the aspects of it and then after that you get gifted your own hive.
Speaker 2:That's right, and you have all the courses and things that you need that are necessary in order to be successful as well. We run everything again on a reward program. So what we ask is you put your money up for your education. It could be anywhere between $100 or $800, whatever that is for these high level institutions like University of Florida, university of Texas, a&m. There's 13 master beekeeping programs throughout the United States and we ask you to put your money up front so we don't give out free money.
Speaker 2:You go and put it up, you pass. We reimburse you every time. So at the end of the course you have gone at no cost. See, it's not free. It's at no cost to you because it costs a lot of something, so it's at no cost to you. Amazing donors, individual donors that we rely on, corporate donors that we rely on, and then the efforts that our staff puts in through corporate and enterprise type programs that we work with, large companies, and those dollars all go back to these scholarships so to then better serve those that need that throughout the United States.
Speaker 1:And I love that setup and that concept because what a great way to get people to actually show up too. If you put something down now, you're more than likely to go finish it, especially if you're going to get your money back once you finish it. Absolutely and that's an even bigger thing. You get the knowledge and you get your money back. That's incredible.
Speaker 2:And you know, our entire vision is transition right, healthy transition from service, and one of those things that you can do is have a plan. And if you have a plan and you have a purpose and you're moving forward, well, if you have an educational path for, say, five years or you have a plan for this year, it's really tough. It's really tough to take your life tomorrow when you have a plan and that's hugely important. You can't buy that right. So having that plan and having that motivation moving forward is hugely instrumental. One of the other things that we talk about is knowledge transfer. So our beekeeping population is getting older. Who's going to learn from that? Right, some of their grandkids might learn from them, as we're learning these things through all these associations, for example. There's beekeeping associations throughout the United States.
Speaker 2:But who's not learning their kids? So that means this what we actually did was fill a gap of need inside of the 20 to 40 year old range that can actually come in and start doing things within the beekeeping community and that also has a huge impact on the conservation and sustainability of our planet. So now we're doing more Multiple things all in the same ways, all from basic leadership tenants from the RINCO.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's absolutely incredible, the layers of assistance and help that you're giving out to veterans, to communities, to the planet. I mean, it's just absolutely incredible. And you said something earlier and I absolutely, I really appreciate and respect what you said. There's really tough to take your life when you have that plan and that mission going forward. And circling back to what you were talking about earlier, I think it made me think of, because I really appreciated, what you shared with. When you're focused on service of self, validating self, when you first got out, like, what are all the things I can get? Where people look at me and say, look at how good you are, is very, very different. And when you're serving others, also very difficult to want to take your life because I got to show up for other people every day. That's right and, as I mentioned, the personal rewards, things you get back from that are huge. They're huge.
Speaker 2:They're actually. I didn't realize how, although we have served, we did not serve in this capacity and it is different. The weapon is different. Right, we were serving in defense of our nation, right, and now we're kind of doing the same thing. But it's different and it's okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, and it's as you pointed out. It's a much, much safer, much safer weapon. I guess in some ways it might be like a little SimRound, though, because if you end up getting stung, I would imagine that that's funny that is good, You're like dang, I messed up there.
Speaker 2:Yep Got it Totally messed up on that and we've been stung a lot and you kind of get the learnings. It's a quick learning lesson. Oh, why did I just do that? Why did they come out in this way? Well, maybe I was loud, maybe I was popping up with the things that I shouldn't have so quickly and it's hard to describe with if you haven't been into a high. But those that have again added to slow, smooth, smooth, as fast really works.
Speaker 2:I had a one of our sponsors, because we do this stuff with large corporates and we also do employee engagement with these, with these corporates, so their employees come out and put them in B suits and we have wonderful experiences with them. They'll go through the hives with us, we teach them, we talk with them not only about hives for eras, but the beekeeping side as well, because a lot of people are interested. It's a really cool niche right now, and so we get them in bee suits, we have the conversations, we talk through that and everything, but it's awesome to see their expressions right and their learning lessons. So, for example, I had a person that that we had already done all our buddy checks, we're going outside, but they wanted to stretch right, they wanted to stretch something.
Speaker 2:So they undid their veil and didn't do the veil all the way back. So they had about like 10 to 12 bees inside of their inside of their veil, which is inside of their heads, their face, because they're looking at the heat signature and all that kind of stuff that they're going towards your face. And so he was like what do I do? I was like calm down, breathe and walk away. That's it Calm down, breathe, don't do anything else, just calm down, breathe and walk away. And so he came back and he's like I didn't get stung once. I was like can you imagine if, if you would have like swat in one of those bees? I'm telling you right now, all of them probably would have got you.
Speaker 1:So it's like that.
Speaker 2:Don't? You don't have to like over, overdo things. Sometimes it's okay in our life to just calm down, breathe and walk away.
Speaker 1:Well, and man, what a. I love the, the, how it ties into bees. But, as you pointed out too, in life in general, I mean what a great exercise just to learn how to calm down, breathe and walk away. Yep, I mean, I think that I would, I think I could use that sometimes with my kids. We were talking, we chatted this morning about just to cook and breakfast for my kids, like some days it's great, some days it's like okay, it's that, take a breath, yeah, walk away, just just walk away.
Speaker 2:There's so many life, life outages and metaphors and, like you said, kids I have. I have three daughters. They're amazing, they're incredible, they're beautiful. I love them so much and sometimes it's a lot.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and that's okay. Yep, it is. And learning these lessons from bees, it's. It's what an amazing, amazing thing to be able to do that. What sort of and I have I have so many questions for you. You've got just so many good things happening. I love, love, love your this program. What sort of lessons or things have people learned from this? You said you got a bunch of examples. I mean I'd love to hear just one story about somebody that took on a hive and and had a an awesome experience with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of my favorites is well, now I got too many favorites because we have one that literally works with us now on a corporate in a corporate setting, who started with this year one. That exactly what he should have done. We got a mentor with him. He lives about an hour from us here in the Houston area and so he works with. He works with his mentor for a year, then in the second year he's growing. Like we say, learn, grow, lead. Those are your three years. Learn the first year, grow your second year and lead your third year. So the second year he starts growing himself, growing his hives, and then other people want to start being attached in that, in that area. So he also works with an organization called Veterans and Patriots United that serves those that have addiction or what do you call it Like like jail, being incarcerated, and so it's, they're, they're coming out and they need something. Well, guess what? Bees is a great way to to help with that transition. So he's working with them. Or you know what? He's our corporate beekeeper on campuses like Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, techpeap, fmc, like large corporates, and now he's serving those employees there.
Speaker 2:And that's a three year period of time that completely shifted his life in a really amazing way, because now there's so much potential and opportunity. Throughout the rest, we are. Although we are a large organization that some might think, we still have huge and tremendous growth opportunities that we're working through right now. And so, as he's as he's learning more and growing more, he's able to affect more and guess what? It continues to grow. And the way we speak through that is how we speak with our corporates is learning how to grow an organization, as hives are grown by bees, so when you think about what they are doing, you have basically a democracy that's going on and it's all for the better good right at the end of the day. So everything's for the better good. If they need to kill the queen because she ain't laying, they kill her. Now, most people don't know that, but this is like really, this is a an amazing organism, right?
Speaker 2:This? Each hive is its own organism and they live their own life, but they're doing it to produce and reproduce. That is their entire objective in life. So she's laying eggs and that's all she does. She has bees that clean her and feed her all sorts of stuff, right, and each one of them has job descriptions, just like we probably do in our own lives. And you, you create this hierarchy right Over time.
Speaker 2:So they one, you do something, they three, you do something, they 15, you're doing something, and these bees are growing into these jobs and eventually they have about a 40 to 45 day life cycle. So they're dying and so they have to constantly be making eggs, or she has to be constantly laying eggs, and you're creating all these jobs for this, this organism, to continue to be fulfilled, all in a basically a 45 day window. It's, it's incredible, and this is just cycling, cycling, cycling, cycling all the time. Well, when you do that, you're also growing those hives right, cause they're producing and reproducing, which is why we get those byproducts you know, bees wax, honey, et cetera, and so, as they're producing, they're also running out of space inside of the boxes or inside of a tree cavity or inside of a wall, and they'll split.
Speaker 2:Well, the only way they're going to be successful in that split is to follow the same guidelines, the same processes, the same system that had made them successful before. So now you can put this whole thing into a corporate setting of we all matter, we are all important and our goals and missions are XYZ. Let's get there. And then, when we get to a certain spot, well now we might move to another city or another town or another whatever, but we have to follow the same process of procedures throughout. That's what made us successful. So now you take this nature organism that shifts into a literal organization of whatever structure that you're in.
Speaker 1:So what a beautiful like taking that and then applying it over with the bees. I absolutely love that. That's incredible. So what y'all are doing is wonderful.
Speaker 2:That's one that I just I can't be happy enough because I get to spend time with this guy every, almost every day, so you can probably see the smile on my face.
Speaker 2:It is a true joy quality of people that we have in the organization. And then one of my favorites. It's always going to be one of my favorites because it was one of the first ones, I guess you could say that was really impactful to me. He came in, he's from Indiana, so Troy's the first one. Troy's, like I said, we're together pretty much every day and if we're not together physically, we are talking, like we're on the phone, we're texting, you know whatever's going on. It's pretty incredible. And then Ron is the second guy that I would talk about. And again, there's literally hundreds of personal stories that I can talk about, but these are standouts because of how much they've achieved in such a short period of time.
Speaker 2:And Ron, another addiction type person who wasn't doing that well, found House for Heroes started with a mentor who was I wouldn't say like every mentor is different, right, just like every person is different, every mentor is different. And he really pushed him. He's like man if you want to learn beekeeping, come on right and he would go do rescues and removals. And why that's important is because every mentor is different. There's not a singular path in life. There's not a singular mentor. You've got to learn things for yourself and take personal responsibility of that. And then Ron from there. And so he started his first year not knowing a thing, started with Bill and within, I think, the first week, he had his first life. Right, that is not Hives for Heroes way to do things, but again, or guidelines were not, you know, a dictatorship. And so he gets his first and then he goes for another removal and another removal. In his first year he had 64 Hives in one year. There's a lot of commitment, dollars, energy, learning, all involved in that. One to 64 in his first year.
Speaker 2:And then he started seeing himself become better, as a better person. His family wants to start being with him more so now the kids are involved, the wife is involved amazing. And now they have a company called Archive Aperies out of Indiana that they are at farmers markets. They are building their own brand out there and he's also our Indiana State lead and this is like literally less than three years of working with bees, working with the caliber of people that we have inside of the organization, because everybody can connect with everybody in New York. There's not really a hierarchy as one might think and he's just thriving, he's doing amazing and those are the kinds of things you're like okay, somebody that might have had issues and had nowhere to go or other places to go, but maybe not liked it. I mean, we don't want to take credit for anything that others have achieved, but now we've got them.
Speaker 1:I mean that's pretty impressive oh yeah, I mean you're providing the foothold. I heard Jaco mention it and it's something that I've shared and it was just something that he said. He's like I didn't change you Because somebody was giving him credit. He's like I didn't change you. I might have been a foothold for you Right To show you where you can climb, but you had to do the work.
Speaker 2:That's accurate.
Speaker 1:And I just love the way that he put that very humbly, stating that you still got to do the work.
Speaker 2:We're a platform and an opportunity for you to be successful, and we'll do whatever we can and I love those shifts of words. Right, there's a way that you help veterans. I don't like that word. Helping veterans, in my personal opinion, means you are taking the responsibility and you are walking them down a path that you don't even know if they want or not, because you're helping. Yes, this is why we say we are supporting our nation's heroes. Support means it's you, it's your goals and where they're, to walk alongside you and be your backstop and be there for support. But it's on you, it's your responsibility.
Speaker 1:I'm stealing that, by the way. That's a. I love how you used the word taking the responsibility of it, because now I don't have to do anything, but the moment you walk away, they don't know what to do next. That's right, and that's where that problem is, is you have to constantly hold hands the whole time, and it's not that I'm against holding hands, it's. The goal is to empower them to do this daily for themselves. Another good word of power, and I love your use of that.
Speaker 1:And circling back to what you said earlier too, because you're talking about the change one to 64 hives in a year, and you mentioned something in there that his family wanted to start hanging around with him again. And I had a conversation with another veteran, a phenomenal guy author he's got some amazing books and Joshua Hood, the Army Vet great books, if you like thriller books he's got some awesome books but also a huge advocate for veterans, and he said that once he got control of his drinking he had kind of got everything into a good plane. He went out and he said I had the best week ever with my family and I sat back and I was talking to my wife like this was the best weekend ever and he thought that they had changed and she essentially broke down and said no, we've been the same, you're the one that's changed.
Speaker 1:And it really hit him like a ton of bricks. That it was like, man, I needed to chat, didn't he? Because when he was struggling he thought everybody else needed to change.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's everybody else's fault.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's everybody else, but it's. You know, the moment he changed and I just love his. He used the word responsible often and his accountability, self-responsibility, is just absolutely amazing. But that's what I heard with that, too is that the moment this individual started serving his hive, serving other people, that that's when everybody else in his life started to want to be around him as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what a great books, and I mean, and like him, he's probably a phenomenal individual, right? I mean like, oh yeah, great person. Most people that are in the military are not there for selfish reasons. Right, they are servants. They are doing something bigger than themselves and oftentimes we tell people we're not in the position to tell you when to leave, but we're giving you an opportunity to do so. You've always been a leader. Here's just the opportunity to do so.
Speaker 2:And as we're shifting and changing in our own lives, I think it's really a powerful opportunity to appreciate what our minds and physiological nature can do when we shift right, because his shift just shifted his whole family. Ron's shift shifted his whole family. And what better way to serve Like, we can serve a million people throughout, whoever, but if your family is intact and not doing well, kind of, what's the point If you're not doing well in your own thing, the people that know you best. I guess there's one of those things about putting on a mask. You can go put on a mask everywhere else, but your family still knows and that's the fruits of who you are and where your heart is.
Speaker 2:And as you shift that heart at least in my opinion, it shifted from a level of anger to everything, like I was just angry, I didn't like this, I didn't like that and I didn't know how to emotionally regulate, so I would just get angry and anything that was in my way, it was just pure anger, right. And now it's just a shift of gratitude or choosing to be happy. This is this adage of happiness is circumstantial and joy is a choice. So you'd choose joy. That's pretty amazing too, because it shares with you the power that you can actually choose joy in every circumstance, although you might not be happy in every circumstance, but you can still choose joy, and it's a shift of mentality.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it is 100% a choice, and I was listening to a mentor of mine the other day. He was talking about this concept that the moment we say it's a good day because of the weather's nice, or it's a good day, but in that we're a victim to the world around us. That it's only a good day if everything around us is bad.
Speaker 2:Or circumstantially absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the moment we say I'm just going to it's a good day because I'm making it a good day is a totally different viewpoint on life and on your day and that's an empowering moment. And you said something that I just want to tie back to because I love connecting threads, and you said you didn't know how to emotionally regulate, and earlier on in this conversation you mentioned how you have to emotionally regulate yourself while beekeeping, being able to control your emotions, because if you freak out, you're going to get stung, it's going to be a bad day, and so I love seeing that you didn't know how to emotionally regulate and beekeeping. Definitely, I would just, based on your words, close that and then help with that.
Speaker 2:I really did, and it's one of those things where you can't. This is a control issue. A lot of us have I as well power and control. This is a thing, right, because we are, in essence, not in power and not in control, right? So these, to me, taught me that I'm not in control, and that's okay, right, but I can still work through things not being in control.
Speaker 2:I want to control this. I want to control this part of the environment. I want to control somebody's reaction to something that you do. Well, you can't. So when you're working with the hives, you can't control this stuff, but there is a process to follow, right?
Speaker 2:Like we were talking about slow, smooth, smooth, fast breathing, being like, almost like being kind, like gentle hearted. It's like they feel it. There are people that have, like this innate sense, like there's. We have a lot of mentors throughout the organization, throughout the organization, throughout the United States. We have guys and girls that are, you know, youtube extraordinaries. We have educational, just amazing people throughout these universities. We have people that nobody's ever heard of, that are just the most incredible beekeepers, and we get the opportunity to meet and work with these people and the amount of learning that comes from that in a very short period of time, is really being aware, being aware of what's going on, and all these things are lessons learned from a hive.
Speaker 2:I mean, I would, obviously I'm going to try to get anybody into a hive at least once. Right, there's a piece of the transitioning as well that we want adrenaline. Right, we're either doing something. Create me, I was riding motorcycles at 120 to 140 miles an hour for no reason, did not have any clue why I was doing that, but it was right and that's not safe. But that same adrenaline action, that same feeling of unknown, that same, I guess I can only say, adrenaline is what happens right before you go into the hive, because you have no idea what's going on. Every hive is different, right? It's pretty incredible.
Speaker 1:I've got some questions about that too, and I love that you tied in the adrenaline, because I was just having a conversation with my wife about it. She let me know that, in her belief that I'm an adrenaline junkie, and it's like, well, I definitely enjoy jumping into wild situations and I didn't have a big defense for it. And it's true, I do enjoy jumping into different situations. I mean, it's something that I enjoy. And what I want to ask about, too, is jumping into this Because it's piqued my interest.
Speaker 1:Since we first got in contact, since we had our first conversation, I've talked to my wife about it and I would imagine that anybody listening right now that speaks their interest. I want to share out your contact info and share all that stuff and some of the questions that I've had with my wife that are unknowns that I would imagine somebody else listening might not know that these might be the excuses to not call you, to not send you guys an email, and so just a couple of baseline things that if somebody's interested, somebody wants to. For instance, I live in Colorado and my wife was like, wow, I bet we can't have bees here, and I was like, well, I don't know, I don't know what that is. So what does the climate look like? Is it climate dependent? Does it matter where you live in the US or, I guess, anywhere yonder worldwide? But does that matter? It does not, I mean it only depends on you.
Speaker 2:The biggest issues that we ever have are literally like HOAs. It's not the bees, the bees are everywhere. They are pollinating. So anywhere there where there's going to be like flower and nectar sources, they're going to be there because that's how the circular part of nature works we have again, we don't operate in groups like most people or organizations do Think of, like almost the most flat organization you can think of, because we're a one to one network with a very minimal staff, so that all our dollars are able to go back to the programming, admission and to the scholarships. So we rely on the mentors in local areas.
Speaker 2:So we are working with the State Beekeeping Association, we are working with the universities and we were finding other APRs in your area to connect you with Right. So it's a network. It's not a program, as most people would think, and there's a lot of reasons behind that. We don't want to share all our secrets, but programs don't necessarily work because they put everybody into a funnel. Everything is like one fix, one solution for one thing. Well, we are not one person. Me and you are very, very different. Nothing wrong with that. That's amazing. But we might learn differently, we might have different time schedules. You travel a lot, so how is that to where? If I only have like, if Hypes for Heroes only has Denver Colorado at four o'clock on Tuesdays, well then that can never show up because he's not there on Tuesdays.
Speaker 2:Well, that doesn't seem very fair, because he's still trying to look for that, not only the bees, but again that personal relationship, where people organization that happens to play with bees. It's kind of cool, right.
Speaker 1:So really cool.
Speaker 2:That you're connecting with those people, and now you take that Y'all have each other's contact information here's the general guidelines and y'all work on your relationship, because who wants to have somebody micromanage your relationship anyway? Right?
Speaker 1:No well, and it would have robbed and I believe you said his name was Ron with one to 64 hypes. If there was a flat program in place, that would have not happened. So exactly what you wanted to have happen wouldn't have happened because we were putting rules over the top of people.
Speaker 2:That's right, so that's what I got yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think it's great and you're reaping the benefits of it.
Speaker 2:We found really a place either. That you mentioned, like where can you not have bees? I think, is that kind of what you're saying. We haven't really found a place outside of if it's not environmentally right for the bees, if that makes sense. So, on HPV, we have. It is on a second story terrace right next to an office space and they are doing they're flourishing, wonderfully. We have some really cool stuff going on with HPV. That's probably a whole other conversation, but literally facial recognition and predictive analytics Wow.
Speaker 2:So we're way outside of what you would think of a nonprofit that is working with some heavy hitters in the industries. But what we like utilizing is the resources in which they have available to make the world a better place. And since that is one of their missions, along with first responders and veterans, we were able to come together and work with a large, I guess, collaboration team. It's about seven different organizations all coming together to do this specific project, which it didn't exist the year ago. It's pretty cool, but we haven't. So for that instance, they're there at our headquarters. It's in the middle of Houston, pretty trafficked area. We have six hives in the backyard. It's right there. There's three story townhomes right next to us. They're doing fine. Actually, they produce extremely well. We also have farms in range that we have hundreds of hives on, so we haven't found necessarily a place. That is just a no-go a no-go for the beach.
Speaker 1:Is it a? Because this was something that my wife brought up too, and again just wanting to go through this in case anybody's, I think I'm 100% on board. I hope anybody listening just calls you up and get started with it because it sounds all the little lessons inside of it sound incredible. So I want to make sure we clear any of the reasons not to right now. But my wife was asking about also the anybody that might be allergic to bees, like neighbors. She was like, should we be worried about neighbors? Should we be concerned about other people? Because if you think about a hive, somebody that doesn't know, is it 50,000 bees flying around my house at all times? Is it a swarm of bees at all times or is it something that that's not a big factor? How does that look?
Speaker 2:That's a great question and it could be some. A lot of people would ask that question, right? There is roughly 50,000 in each one of the deep boxes, so you got 50,000 there and then you're building a honey super. I might be using some language that not everybody knows, but it's okay, you get on it.
Speaker 1:Really. I was totally guessing at 50,000 too. I thought I was going to go overshoot it, but that's a lot of bees.
Speaker 2:People say we go 30 to 50,000 and we go with the 50,000 because we we try to keep space as efficiently as possible for them to do their jobs and not add additional space. Because, as we see it, we as like me and a couple of the guys that are here that run the corporate hives we don't want as many bees as you can put it right. You've seen things like stacked like crazy right, and pictures. Probably we don't do that because of the amount of bees and we put them on corporate campuses. So it's not very responsible If it's in your, if it's in your, you know your farm or your ranch or anything like that. That's totally reasonable. We just don't do that. We end up splitting these bees from the corporates and then giving them to veterans and first responders in the area. So it's it's it's continued community service. Not only are the bees literally pollinating around that local area anywhere between three to five miles, so that corporate is now doing community service without them even knowing it all the time. And then when those, those bees grow and split, we, we give those splits to the veterans and first responders that don't have bees yet, right. So now they're doing an additional community services that corporate and on the, on the, the side of how many bees?
Speaker 2:Yeah, roughly call it 30 to 50,000 in a in a singular deep, and then you're going to, you know, go through the year. It fluctuates, right. So in the in the fall time now, we're going to start going and not diminishing, but they're going to start downsizing, right, because they're going to protect their stores for what they've had this year, what they've done so well and creating. They're going to protect that, they're going to protect the queen so they can survive through the winter, utilize the resources they have, and then in the spring they're going to start growing again. So there's actual plans in place for different size boxes. How you utilize the boxes, people do it different ways. There's not a right way to do it, but that's why you have a mentor. But when it comes to people that are being that could be stung great statistic for everybody here and six million chance that you will be stung by being one in six million being stung by honeybee so, basically, anything in life is more dangerous, right? Yeah, like literally.
Speaker 1:But and just seems like it and I guess I love that statistic and just it seems like putting it in such a close proximity to everybody, but it seems like they're flying around for miles, like they're not always that's not a big swarm circling your house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we'll go on back to what I said previously, which was bees want to produce and reproduce. They actually want nothing to do with you. Like you'll probably, if there's a bee that's bumping you, she doesn't want to sting you. They know that that's not going to be a good thing, so they're bumping you, they're kind of letting you know hey, we're over here, right, that type of thing. But like, for example, our neighbors, we haven't had a single complaint three years, right, and of course we give them honey because that's the nicest thing to do and be like, hey, this is actually from basically your backyard and we'll give them honey. And you always want to be nice to your neighbors because that just gets stewardship and being a good neighbor, and if anything were to happen, of course we respond very quickly. But we haven't had any complaints.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of people that have them in their backyards. Some people, funny enough, hide them from their HOA and it's like who will know that I have one hive in my backyard unless you're leaning over my fence, right? Yeah, because, like you said, they're everywhere, so they're already there. They're already pollinating your plants, it's just that you have more of a concentration in your yard. I actually tend to think that that's better, because then you don't have wild swarms and things like that around. Another thing to not fear is the swarms that you see in trees. They don't have anything to defend, so when you're watching those things you can kind of just see their beauty. They're not there to protect. So there's a lot of lessons learned in this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:But I would say the biggest obstacle that we have is the fear that we've had from childhood, because somebody at some point either told us they were dangerous or we got stung ourselves. Oftentimes it could probably be a wasp and you won't even know the difference, right, if you're a child and you get stung. Wasps sting multiple times. The yellow jackets they actually sting multiple times. The bees don't. They sting once right, and the barbs get stuck in your skin right, and then they fly off and they actually pull all their intestines out. That's the stuff that you see on there, and so they sacrificed their life for the hive in the way that they see it. But one of the best treatments for those stings is actually honey itself, which is kind of cool. So you literally like put honey on your sting.
Speaker 1:No, that's, I love that. That's incredible.
Speaker 2:So I would say mostly ades right. You have to be a responsible manager of hive right Hive manager in order for the bees to not be aggressive. For example, if there is a low resources, well, they're gonna go out and try to find resources. So some people feed bees with, like a sugar water mixture, some people do like a formula, some people put bananas on there I mean there's this amazing amount of different types of things that people do but they do need resources. So if your law and resources no problem, you won't be more aggressive, just like you and I would be.
Speaker 1:And that makes a lot of sense. What about? And so when we think about cost, there's two costs the financial cost and then the time cost. You had mentioned 1 to 800 bucks, but then you guys reimburse it. So let's say that I've gone through the course. What is the annual cost of having one hive, like if I'm gonna put a hive in my backyard?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question and I'm gonna do the answer of it depends, and it depends on what you want, and that's why it's so important not to me not to go down one specific route but to really engage in the community, see what other people are doing. The reason why I say that is because there are a lot of people that build their own hives. There are Langstraw hives that you probably see in normal TV. There are top bar hives, there are top Langstraw hives long lengths. There's a ton of different types and some you can build and if it's a monetary cost, you can find scrap wooden building. So there's all sorts of different ways to do it. If you're, I would budget 1500 bucks to start period. That's gonna be whether we prefer people go with two hives to start, and the reason for that is because you can utilize resources on both of them, one's weak and one's strong. You can help combine and utilize them in one way or another. You can see, kind of like, where the resources are coming from, because you can actually see a beeline. Right, they will come out, they'll do their figure eight in the morning. You will see where they're going in the direction that they're going. It's really cool. But you could also have two hives sitting right next to each other and the honey that's produced is completely different from each other, even though they're sitting right next to each other, because their sources are different.
Speaker 2:And then, of course, we always always, always safety gear. So you have your B suit, whatever you're comfortable in we have. We are actually coming out with a new branded stuff which will be on our website at HatchFabulouscom. That is a full suit which has the veil and everything and then a set of gloves. That's your basic PPE. I would wear boots. Up north, a lot of people do things different. They'll use maybe cotton or just a jacket. Down here it's hot. We use triple ventilated suits. They are a little bit more pricey but, man, they are so good that wind blows right through me, but when it's hot, so it feels really good. But you in Colorado might not want a full suit, maybe just a jacket and jeans. So it's experiencing what it is for you that right, there is probably going to be 150 to 200 bucks, and I put that 1500 with that included. So, like budget 1500.
Speaker 1:So 1500 is going to basically get you. You could budget that and you're going to be in a good spot to get set up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you'll be two hives startup gear, protective gear, feed. You'll be pretty good that first year, and then the initial cost decreases, right, and it depends on what you want to do. Do you want to build more bees? Do you want to sell nukes? Do you want to build queens? Do you want to produce honey?
Speaker 2:There's all these avenues inside of that as well, and typically you'll find somebody that's around your area that goes, hey, I really like this, I want to make mead. For example, we had a mead made for us from Beeweaver which was awesome. You know, all the proceeds came back to the organization. So there's so many different opportunities. That's incredible. Yes, it was delicious, oh my gosh. So it was a mead that is their basic mead that they did a barrel aged inside of a balcony's whiskey. That's unbelievable, and so they sold out very quickly.
Speaker 2:So we'll put it that way, yeah, and so we do a lot of collaborations like that and it's quite fun, whether it's. Of course, they're not all an alcohol, right, but mead is supposedly the oldest alcohol because it's fermented honey, right. So kind of unique, kind of cool, and of course we do that all over the place. There was a beer that we did in. It was called Hero's Honey Ale and that was in Georgia and I am forgetting the name of the brewery right now, and our Georgia State, lead Eldon, is the one that connected that and utilized the honey to make beer. So all sorts of different opportunities to collaborate with Hives for Heroes. For any of the listeners it's literally be as creative as you would like, as long as it's legal, moral and ethical. Be as creative as you like and we'll probably get on with it.
Speaker 1:Man, that's what an incredible, incredible thing. And then, finally, the time investment, and I know you hit on for me, I'm travel-related.
Speaker 1:It's really quite cool to also see that, and so my time at home is limited and then when I am home, I'm usually I dedicate all my time to my kids and my wife. I want to get my wife some time away. I also want to spend as much time as I can with my kids, Absolutely. What is the weekly time commitment that needs to be that? We need to be focused on taking care of your hive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that first year you'll learn a lot. So it's really good to have that mentor specifically for that, because the responsibility is no longer under shoulders, one of the important pieces of why we do what we do. And again, there are organizations that are out there that do things 180 degrees. It doesn't matter, as long as they're serving the veteran and first responder and serving our environment in a great way. We encourage everybody to get involved with whoever is in their local area. We do it differently because of our lessons learned. One of those is the responsibility of bees. Your first year and a lot of military and first responders can probably understand this. Losing a life is not easy and the first time that I had a swarm that I went and got and I brought into my backyard and I killed it because I had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker 2:I was a grown man crying in my backyard because I couldn't do even this. I killed something. I had to call my mentor. And this is where this mentor stuff came in. I called my mentor. He said Steve, you are doing literally the hardest thing you could possibly do, expecting some perfect result. What in your brain was going off to think that you could even do that? And I'm like well, of course, our adages. We're very skilled at a lot of things. How can I not do this? Et cetera, et cetera. That's a lot of the reason. But I would hate for people not hate, but it sucks that. That is a piece of this. Bees do die and that's something that you have to work through. So in that first year, we don't want you to burden that responsibility without the knowledge that you literally don't have the knowledge at so time, commitment-wise, depends on the hives and it depends on what kind of beekeeper you are.
Speaker 2:This is kind of digging a little deep, but if you are a beekeeper that wants to know every single bee's name in the hive, it's going to take you long. But if you're more on a commercial base kind of thing, it might take you five minutes. So Troy and I, as close as we are, we are very different beekeepers but we respect. That about each other and that's how our organization works is we don't talk down based on what other people do, whether they use treatment or don't use treatment, or they use long langs and not langs. There's so many, there's millions of different things that can happen and it's very, very easy for people to not like somebody because of how they work their bees. Again, we're a people organization first, so we care about the people and then, as long as you're doing things that are not like you're not burning a hive, like that's the thing.
Speaker 2:So on the time commitment, for me it would take less time than Troy. It would take less time than maybe somebody that wants to know every single bee's name. There's nothing wrong with any of them, so it's kind of how you are. And then the amount of hives. So multiply that by the amount of hives. If you're spending 10 minutes on a hive it might take you 20 minutes.
Speaker 2:So full on it's going to take you 35 minutes, with prep, getting ready, putting everything together, inspecting the hives and then closing up the hives and kind of deregulating. So that might take you 35 minutes. If you have 10 hives, it could take you three hours. So it really depends on how. And this is why the encouragement of being again that mentorship process is because you could go, man, I want 10 hives, but you have no understanding what 10 hives is going to cost monetarily, right, cause all those are going to need boxes. You don't know how much time it's going to take. So just kind of step in, put that toe in and work with us and the people that are in your local area and then you'll figure out your own identity and beekeeping and probably thrive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so and that's 30 ish. If you have two hives, 30 ish minutes a week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably about 30 minutes a week and some people do every two weeks because there's the science behind it is brood cycles, right. So you have the stages of the bee right Work the bee from the egg being laid all the way to being born. So if you're looking for different things, like mites, for example, you might have a brood break. If you need to do that, cause you don't want to do treatments or you can do, there's like small hive beetles or like pests. It's almost like playing a game, right, like a real game, but it actually has like little villains, right, like the veromite is a villain in this. In this way it acts as almost like a nerve tick. It attacks, it attaches to them inside of the cell and then they come out kind of deformed and then you have small hive beetles which take over cells, one at a time and they basically germinate faster and so they take over the hive from like basically the inside out. So there's like villains involved in this too, including humans, right?
Speaker 2:Herbicides, pesticides, fungicides. So now you're becoming a person that is out in your community and can you please not do X, because this is what goes on. This is why you don't want to do. You know, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and those types of things.
Speaker 2:And there's mostly natural things for all those, but it involves you in a lot of conversations. You really learn a lot in a short period of time, based on your desire to learn.
Speaker 1:Got it, and this is what an incredible journey. And those are just the ones that stood out to me, and I obviously think that anybody that is, I think anybody should jump in and do it, especially if you're struggling, though. If you're in a spot where you're a veteran first responder struggling, definitely reach out. I mean, what, yeah, what costs would you put on on your mental health? Cause I don't think there's anything that, any barrier, that's not worth stepping through, whether it's the financial, the time commitment. So step in and reach out, and with that, what are they? How? What's the best way for somebody to get in touch with you? If they're listening to this and they're saying, okay, I want to, I want to jump in, I want to learn more, I want to see about finding a mentor, what's the best way for them to reach out to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you go straight to our website, hypesforheroescom, click on join us and click on newbie and you'll fill out an application there and we're collecting basic information, mostly geographical, and some of your background. We don't go into a lot of background. We are extremely open organization. If you're a veteran or first responder and you have an interest in these, you're it Like that's it. There are minimal qualifications. On the opposite side of that, if there's any listeners or listeners know anybody that would like to mentor a veteran or first responder, we act as though it's like the selective service Sign up so that when you're needed you're available. So sign up at, again, hypesforheroescom. You're going to click on the mentor tab and fill out a form as well. That goes into our database and our national connections director, which is Charles McMaster you'll see him on the website. He's a retired army just fantastic individual that is going to match you with somebody in those in your local areas. And then that second layer that you have is our state leaders. So if you're in a state that we have a state leader with, there'll be another additional contact point. So, boom, you already have two. And then you're going to go on to our monthly national meetups, which you'll see everybody in the United States. If they want to get on that call, we're there for them. So we do that once I think it's the second Tuesday of every month at seven o'clock central. That's on the website and then we have events all over the place.
Speaker 2:So if you look at our website again hivesforheroescom there is a ton of information. You'll see the about us. You'll see our leadership. You'll see an events tab where it actually has events that are in your local areas. Those leaders do that and you can show up. Click on it, show up. And then we have a resource tab that has all the state organizations that are there for you and to support you. You have our heroes. We call it the heroes, which is people like 220, rva, crisis Line, woodward Project all these known organizations that support Because, again, we're not experts in that we're gonna get you to somebody that you need to be or what you would like to be associated with. And then we have all our national stuffs of the National Honey Board, avf, national Honey Producers and all sorts of other organizations like that that support the beekeeping community at all.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. I love what you've done and what y'all are continually doing, and I really appreciate how you've redefined what success is in your life, and that's where you found happiness. Oh it's just yeah, it's amazing Switching from success for self to success and helping others succeed, and that's essentially what you're offering up, I mean, in your goal. You're offering that for other people.
Speaker 2:That's correct. Yeah, we learn, grow, lead and those leaders that are out there that are doing the same thing that we do every day, and they're doing it in their own communities, and we just took it from a very high level and then continue to go. We've kind of top down, bottom up approach right, there's a lot of similarities in that and lean, as you know, but also like a VBSS, for example.
Speaker 1:That's so good, so good. But if there's any other ways, that we can support you guys.
Speaker 2:I mean, as I'm talking to the listeners, of course, we also need support too, right? So, just like a hive, the resources have to be able to come in. So if you're an individual or you're a company or anything like that, please go to our page. It's really easy to donate there at our donate tab. And then if you're a corporation or there's stuff that likes us coming out and speaking or doing things with your employees, or even having these on the campuses, we'd love to talk to you about that. This is all funded by everybody, right? This is exactly like a hive. It's not one person doing anything. So any kind of generosity that you're willing to do. If you want to talk to us, call us, let us know. We're happy to answer any questions. Of course, we are a 501C3, so it is a tax donation and we've done so much with very little. We talk about how we started with zero Bs and zero dollars and now we're getting to serve in a really, really amazing way. So if we had more resources, what else could you look like?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and that's back to the donation and the helping out. It's not even one isolated helping veterans, because now we're getting more Bs, in which now you're helping planet Earth. I mean you're doing there's so many layers of that every donation that somebody would make. So I definitely highly recommend anybody that's listening. If you're not reaching out to get a hive, what can you do to reach out to help, to support, donate, recommend people to this. And, Steve, thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time today and I'm looking forward to staying in touch and seeing where you guys are at in the future.
Speaker 2:And thanks for that. I would appreciate it. And also if you can't follow us on Instagram or Facebook and LinkedIn at hives4heroes, that is a free way to just let people know that we exist, because you never know who's in your network. That needs some support.
Speaker 1:Yeah, beautiful, thanks, brother, all right.